End Times caravan brings 'May 21' message to Jacksonville

The Rev. Randy Carson believes the world is in its last days and that the time is quickly approaching for apocalyptic biblical prophecies to come true.

What he doesn't believe is that it's going to happen on the third Sunday in May, as proclaimed by a California-based biblical prognosticator.

"It's just another crackpot," Carson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Nahunta, Ga., said of the proclamation of Harold Camping, who says Christ will return on May 21.

Camping and his Family Radio Network, including WJFR (88.7 FM) in Jacksonville, are engaged in a national and international ad campaign to warn the world about the impending rapture. The campaign's roving caravan will be making stops in Duval County today through Thursday.

Followers and those skeptical of prophetic predictions say Camping's movement is engaged in precisely the kind of practice the Bible forbids. Their prediction is the movement will end the same way similar movements have: with dejected followers and another black eye for Christianity in an increasingly secular society.

But supporters of the movement defend such prophecies as biblically sanctioned and are adamant that true believers, dead and alive, will be taken to heaven in four months.

"I can tell you now it's an absolute fact this is going to happen on this date," said Ray Kicklighter, a Jacksonville resident who not only believes the prediction but has been distributing related tracts at Jaguars games and other public events.

The prophecy comes at a time when many Americans are preoccupied with future cataclysm and doom. A 2010 Pew Research Center poll found that 72 percent of Americans anticipate a major world energy crisis; 58 percent see another world war as "definite or probably"; and 53 percent foresee the United States being attacked by terrorists with nuclear weapons - all by 2050.

It also found that 41 percent of Americans believe Jesus Christ will return to Earth by then or before. Almost 59 percent of Americans believe the prophecies in the Book of Revelation will happen, a 2004 Time/CNN poll found.

Religion scholars have noted that such movements usually appear in times of war and economic struggle.

"Bad times spawn these sorts of speculations because the way the Bible and apocalyptic literature present them, it's always the darkest before the dawn," said the Rev. Timothy Simpson, a Presbyterian minister who teaches a course on apocalyptic writings at the University of North Florida.

"The faithful are enjoined to look up, for your redemption draws nigh and you are going to be taken out of this mess," Simpson said.

Simpson said Camping is well known in End Times circles. He predicted the world's end would come in 1994, and when that didn't happen, he revised his calculation to May 21, 2011.

Even those who view the Bible literally say the prediction is anything but biblical.

"We teach what Jesus said: That we do not know the hour nor the day when the Lord will return," said the Rev. Frederick Richardson, pastor at Greater Grant Memorial AME Church in Jacksonville. "We ask them to be ready to make their ascension into heaven, but there is no time frame any of us can attest to."

Carson said such movements, when they fail, make his and other ministers' jobs more difficult by fostering dismay and crises of faith among those who believed the predictions. It also makes non-believers more skeptical about Christianity.

"It's a natural time for crazies to come out," Carson said, "but Jesus said don't go after the many false prophets that will come" in the end of days.

Kicklighter said such comments are to be expected from a world - and church - that has lost its ability to follow Scripture. He also disputed the claim that no one can predict the date of Christ's return.

The Bible says human beings cannot know the time in and of themselves, but it doesn't say God cannot or will not reveal the time to humanity, Kicklighter said.

"And every time God brought judgment in the Bible, he warned his people," he added.

jeff.brumley@jacksonville.com (904) 359-4310

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